Moody Vintage Wedding - Polka Dot Wedding

At Polka Dot Wedding we’re suckers for a pop of colour, and Kate didn’t disappoint when she chose dazzling red heels with her luscious black lace gown for her wedding day. This lovely luncheon wedding is quaint, romantic, and, actually, perfect. Photographer by James Day, Kate & Shannon’s moody vintage wedding is a beauty! How they met goes a little something like this…

Kate: “The first time I saw Shannon, we were both sitting at the same gate for a flight to San Diego. I remember glancing over at him and thinking, “Oh, wow, he’s cute!” When I got to my seat, I saw that the seat beside me was empty and thought, “How awesome would it be if he ended up next to me!”….Yeah… no, that’s the stock text from our wedding website, Shannon liked it so we thought we’d keep it! We actually met at Hart’s pub when a mutual acquaintance was preparing to go and live in the USA.

Shannon: “Kate was the cute redhead that yelled at a bunch of people and topped out on the crazy\hot equation. Perfect, in other words.”

This is also from our wedding website! It asked the question, “What’s the best meal you have eaten together?”

Kate: “Bon Appétit Making Perfect Thanksgiving meal for New Year’s Eve with friends!”

Shannon: “Kate probably picked that because it’s the night I proposed, but honestly, the turkey I cooked was absolutely banging.”

Kate: “Shannon brought out a beautiful ring at midnight, sitting on the rocks at the end of our street and watching the fireworks as we brought in 2020. We didn’t actually have any champagne in the house to celebrate with once we walked back home! Travesty!”

Kate tells us about their wedding day. “Shannon and his best man Sandy had suits tailored by Montagio Custom Tailoring – they had a great time choosing all the finer details of their suits and Sandy’s partner Jono, part time drag queen Betty Confetti, was Kate’s special envoy on the shopping trip allowing key details to be kept secret until the aisle!

I’d been looking for something a bit different for my dress and knew I didn’t want to wear white. I’d been browsing online and in department stores, but nothing felt quite right. I’d passed the Angela Osagie Bridal studio many times on the bus home from the city and after noticing a colourful dress in her window decided to look a little more closely. That is when I found my dream dress! It was bold while still being feminine and soft, yet made a statement. It was beautifully handcrafted, and it was love at first sight.

I wore my nana’s blue ring as my something blue. I spent 4 years when I was young living on La Palma in the Canary Islands, which is the same island where Manolo Blahnik grew up so it was particularly special to wear a pair of red Manolos to my wedding.

Our flowers were inspired by a beautiful pair of red shoes (hint: my wedding heels!) and wanting native and seasonal flowers, we chose to work with Josie from Biophilia Blooms whose sustainable and eco-friendly practices aligned with our values.

The brief to our celebrant Married by Adam was “fun but not flippant” and he certainly delivered. With a smooth pre-wedding process, allowing us to dish the dirt and gooey sentimentalism about each other, Adam was able to craft a ceremony that was fun and true to us. Our friends Scott and Kris were asked to surprise us with a reading, and they shared a sweet story about very lovely dinosaurs.

We had our ceremony and reception at Banjo Patterson Cottage Restaurant. The garden is just beautiful, and we appreciated the simplicity of a single venue. The team was lovely to work with, the views were stunning and the food delicious.

We put together a very local wedding with our venue and most of our vendors based nearby. We wanted the day to be special and safe for us and our guests, keeping the in-person guest list to 31 and sharing a live stream with family and friends around the world. Because we knew that mingling and dancing were probably off the table, and having chosen a beautiful setting, we decided on a daytime wedding, with a great meal as the focal point. This also meant that we could delay our couple shots until the golden hour, maximising both our time with our guests and the great light at sunset. Choosing to have a small wedding meant that everyone who attended was very special to us and we shared a very joyful day!

We kept all DIY to a minimum as we wanted the day to be as stress-free and simple as possible. However, we chose to create our own place cards with a book selected for each guest, wrapped in brown paper with a piece of yarn and a Spider-man wax seal to represent each of us, as well as the handwritten name card.

There was a great moment during lunch when we realised Callum from Evan Powis Entertainment was singing an acoustic version of “Everybody Backstreets Back” by the Backstreet Boys, and we had an impromptu 90s sing-along!

We didn’t originally plan to include live music because of the restrictions, but that wasn’t good enough for Shannon, who secretly arranged to surprise me with a solo acoustic performer who played Ed Sheeran’s “Tenerife Sea” as our first dance, once we knew it would be allowed.

James Day came highly recommended to us by another photographer and he was brilliant to work with. James, with his offsider Bodhi, was really well organised, checked in with us to make sure he captured every moment that was special to us and I can genuinely say we have a fantastic photo of every single person who was present.